A BP attorney told a federal judge Thursday that thousands of lawsuits for economic damages must be dismissed because they were filed before claimants tried to settle through BP's $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility, administered by Kenneth Feinberg.

Oil spill defendants also claimed immunity from liability for the toxic dispersant Corexit, saying they simply made "decisions that should have been made by the United States government."

BP and other oil-spill defendants, including Nalco, which makes Corexit, told U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier that they are immune from liability because they were simply following orders that should have been handed down by the president of the United States under the National Environmental Emergencies Contingency Plan.'

On the verge of his addressing a major public rally in London against child trafficking by church and state, Rev. Kevin Annett was arrested and detained in an immigration prison at Stansted airport last night for over 12 hours, and then deported from England without due cause.

Border officials detained Kevin at 8 pm Sunday night upon his return from speaking in the Netherlands , and deported him the next morning, after fingerprinting, photographing and jailing him in a crowded immigration prison cell.

“The only reason they gave for denying me re-entry into England was that my giving public lectures was not an appropriate activity for visitors to that country, if you can believe that” Kevin Annett said today in a press statement.'

Ex CIA intelligence officer turned whistleblower and activist, Michael Scheuer, has launched a blistering attack on the political establishment, over its handing of the so called war on terror, asserting that the entire rationale behind it is based on outright lies and deception.

Mr Scheuer, who was speaking at the popular Hay Festival in the UK said that the politicians including the US President and the British Prime Minister have “not a clue about what’s going down in the western world”.

”We are being attacked in the west and we will continue to be attacked in the west as long as we are in Afghanistan, as long as we support the Israelis, as long as we protect the Saudi police state.” Scheuer said.'

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned in a report that the tough austerity measures and the dire situation could escalate and even lead to a military coup, according to a report by Germany’s popular daily Bild.

According to he CIA report, ongoing street protests in crisis-hit Greece could turn into escalated violence and a rebellion and the Greek government could lose control, said Bild. The newspaper said the CIA report talks of a possible military coup if the situation becomes more serious and uncontrolled.'

Following yesterday’s story about David Cameron’s depressing plans to bomb the UK economy back to the dark ages and wipe out the British countryside, here’s a wistful reminder of how things might have been if only we weren’t run by imbeciles.

It’s a briefing paper called The Really Inconvenient Truth – or It Ain’t Necessarily So produced for the Global Warming Policy Foundation by Lord Turnbull, the former Cabinet Secretary and head of the Home Civil Service (2002 to 2005). His arguments against unilateral action by Britain to “combat Climate Change” are clear and powerful. In a nutshell, he says: “Don’t let the deeply untrustworthy IPCC decide the fate of the UK economy".'

Trends Forecaster Gerald Celente warned in February that we should expect another false flag attack in America to boost the popularity of President Obama and escalate the wars in the Middle East. “Look for a false flag,” said Celente, “look for something to rally the people around the president. They’ll do another one …. Remember the Maine. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin.”

Another false flag attack is a matter of when, not if. The U.S. shadow terrorist state is an unaccountable, secretive, resourceful, cunning, and powerful engine for destruction and deception. We should not underestimate the evil men who have hijacked the national security policy and foreign policy of the United States of America.'

In the eyes of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there is no difference between a legitimate, scientifically-backed health claim, and a phony, made-up claim, as it concerns food and dietary supplements. Only FDA-approved drugs, you see, provide real health benefits, according to the agency. And in its continued assault against health freedom, the FDA has sent warning letters to five different companies that produce natural treatments and cures for sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) because those companies dared to make unauthoried health claims, many of which are backed by peer-reviewed, journal-published scientific studies.

The companies being targeted -- MedaVir, Herpaflor, Viruxo Anti-Viral Support, C-Cure, and Never an Outbreak -- all made the mistake of telling their customers about the health benefits of their products without going through the laborious, multi-million dollar FDA drug approval process. As a result, the FDA has accused them all of selling unapproved drugs, and ordered them to withdraw the statements or face further regulatory action.'

Well-qualified nutritionists that have been trained in proper nutrition, and that understand that simple calorie counting is not enough to ensure good health, are threatened by American Dietetic Association-sponsored (ADA) legislation quietly being passed all across the US. According to the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), the ADA has already sponsored legislation in more than 40 US states that seeks to gain complete control over the practice of nutritional therapies, and if left unchallenged, practicing nutritionists that fail to become certified under new ADA guidelines for both dietitians and nutritionists could lose their freedom to practice.'

The 20th century was the bloodiest and most violent in human history. This led some countries to fascism - a system characterized by the state and large business becoming almost indistinguishable. The first decade of the 21st century suffers from that anti-democratic legacy.

The government of the United States, for example, is largely rented to corporations. Big business sends multiple thousands of lobbyists to Washington, DC, to buy favors and get their point of view across in Congress and the executive branch: The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the new war in Libya have been a boon to munitions manufacturers, "security" companies and private mercenary armies. They are part of a permanent war economy, making the US the world's sheriff.'

American forces in Afghanistan killed twelve children and two women in a night-time bombing of two houses in Nawzad district of Helmand province Saturday. The incident, one of several involving civilian deaths recently, is yet another atrocity committed by the US-NATO forces engaged in the illegal occupation.

According to local Afghan officials, the fourteen civilians died as they slept in two family compounds in a small farming community about 80 kilometres north of Helmand Province’s capital, Lashkar Gah. Six others were reported wounded in the airstrike, though differing accounts have emerged of the total number of dead and wounded. President Hamid Karzai’s office said that 10 children, two women, and two men were killed, while NATO officials said nine civilians had died.'

Yemeni forces opened fire on a protest camp and killed more than 20 demonstrators Monday in the southern city of Taiz while government warplanes launched airstrikes on another southern town seized by radical Islamists.

The new attempts to suppress the uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh with overwhelming force, following a weekend when high-level military defectors formed a united front in support of the protesters, all pointed to the longtime leader’s increasingly tenuous grip on power.

Early Tuesday, residents said multiple explosions were heard in several parts of Sanaa, apparently from heavy weapons and shells. They said clashes were in progress in the capital. There were no immediate details of who was fighting or whether there were casualties.'

Monday, May 30, 2011

The running of Britain’s nuclear bomb base at Coulport on the Clyde is to be handed over to a consortium of multinational private firms led by the controversial US arms dealer, Lockheed Martin, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Defence ministers in Westminster have decided that the highly sensitive job of managing more than 200 Trident nuclear warheads, and arming the Royal Navy’s submarines with them, should be taken over by the group of companies within the next year.

The decision has been condemned by the SNP, trades unionists and disarmament campaigners, who are demanding an urgent rethink. They describe it as a cost-saving, job-cutting “kick in the teeth to the workforce” that will put nuclear safety at risk.'

The reason such an inquiry might seem appropriate is that over the next few years the Bank acquires new powers and responsibilities that will make this 317-year-old institution arguably the most powerful authority in the land – more powerful in terms of its influence over the economy than the Chancellor himself.

It's a grand experiment in macroeconomic management the like of which has never been tried before. In addition to its existing powers to set interest rates and manage the money markets, the Bank of England will acquire responsibility not just for banking supervision but for controlling the credit cycle in the round – a function known as "macroprudential regulation".'

It was a notorious provision of the USA Patriot Act, renewed on Thursday, that allowed the government to snoop on what library books you'd borrowed, what videos you'd rented, your medical records – anything, really, if investigators thought it might have something to do with terrorism, no matter how tangential.

I wrote about it for the Boston Phoenix in 2003, as an example of the then budding excesses of the Bush-Cheney years.

Well, section 215 is back – not that it ever went away. Charlie Savage reports in Friday's New York Times that two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, have accused the Obama administration of using Section 215 for purposes not intended by Congress. Russ Feingold, then a Democratic senator for Wisconsin, raised similar alarms in 2009.'

The message was delivered during Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani's recent four-day visit to Beijing, which celebrated no less than six decades of strategic relations --involving, among other issues, nuclear collaboration and support over the ultra-sensitive Kashmir question.

The Times of India reconstructed the message as a stark warning that: “any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China".'

Looking at the current Japanese meltdown as more than 50 Chernobyls is just the start. In addition, the fate of the four nearby reactors at Fukushima Daini is as yet unknown by the outside world. Working at the nearby reactors, only 10 km (6 miles away) is a quick, painful death sentence. They are inside the mandatory evacuation zone.

This much is known. All radioactive exposures are cumulative for each human, animal and plant. What’s more, mutated genetic codes are passed on to offspring forever. This means all Japanese and all Northern Hemisphere inhabitants are suffering internal radioactive contamination from Fukushima Daiichi reactors already.

The Guardian reported today that British PM David Cameron has stepped down as a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in a “move pro-Palestinian campaigners claim is a result of pressure.”

The JNF was originally a Zionist fund set up to buy land in Palestine to establish Jewish settlements before the creation of the state of Israel. Since 1948 it has been operating as a global charity specialising in planting trees over Palestinian stolen land and eradicated villages.'

Many in the alternative media have wondered if a false flag nuke attack within America is a real possibility. Would they do it? Who would it be? What cities would be targeted?

Recently, The New York Times reported that the United States is running out of a rare gas that is used to detect smuggled nuclear materials.

The reason given is that one arm of the Energy Department is selling the gas much quicker than the other is able to accumulate it.

While this could possibly be a legitimate reason, it seems highly suspicious that a government that is installing a police state nationwide to supposedly save us from terrorists would be unable to obtain the gas needed to detect smuggled nuclear weapons.'

Most Americans remain blissfully unaware (or don’t care) they are eating genetically-modified (GM) organisms every day. Passivity and blind faith in the USDA, FDA and EPA have largely contributed to this attitude. Perhaps that will change now that a new study reveals an insecticide produced in GM corn actually gets absorbed into the human body.

If you haven’t been paying attention to your food lately, biotechnology giants such as Monsanto thank you for that. Because behind your back, they’ve succeeded in replacing 86% of US corn with their patented insecticide-producing “frankencorn”.'

Planning a sojourn in the northeastern United States? You could soon be taking part in a novel security programme that can supposedly 'sense' whether you are planning to commit a crime.

Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programme designed to spot people who are intending to commit a terrorist act, has in the past few months completed its first round of field tests at an undisclosed location in the northeast, Nature has learned.

Like a lie detector, FAST measures a variety of physiological indicators, ranging from heart rate to the steadiness of a person's gaze, to judge a subject's state of mind. But there are major differences from the polygraph. FAST relies on non-contact sensors, so it can measure indicators as someone walks through a corridor at an airport, and it does not depend on active questioning of the subject.'

I'm always amused by the purchasing process of electronics or appliances at big box stores. On one hand, as their sales associate calmly explains to you, whatever product you're buying is such high quality that you'll be extremely satisfied with your purchase. But on the other hand, it's also such a complete piece of junk that you'd be smart to add on a two-year extended warranty so that when the gizmo breaks five seconds after you open the box, you can get a replacement for free.

The CDC and the vaccine industry are fronting a similar bit of contradictory logic. "Our vaccines work so well that they offer almost total immunity from the flu," they claim. And yet somehow they also work so poorly that they "wear off" after a year and require you to be re-vaccinated annually.'

Special police forces raided the house of 7 year-old Ali Siyam this afternoon and illegaly arrested him, causing injury requiring hospitalization to both his aunt and father.

At 3 PM this afternoon, Israeli police forces raided the Alabasya neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem to arrest 7 years-old Ali Siyam from inside his parents’ house. Despite his young age, which is significantly younger than the age of legal responsibity, the boy was taken for questioning at the Russian Compound police station.

When Siyam’s father and aunt tried to protect the boy from the cops, they were violantly assaulted to a degree that required their evacuation to the Hospital. Siyam’s father, Hammouda, was beaten and maced with pepper-spray inside the house and his aunt, Amal, was struck with a rubber-coated bullet in her thigh. The two are currently at the Hadassa Har Hatzofim hospital.'

A top Fatah official says the party is determined to establish a unity government with rival group Hamas despite the criticism by Israelis and the United States.

The senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath made the remark following his meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza against the backdrop of ongoing talks between Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to agree on the make-up of a unity government, AFP reported on Sunday.

The two Palestinian rival groups Hamas and Fatah are expected to agree the composition of a transitional government of independents by June 6, and the two will stand united against Israel as Tel Aviv has no intention of making peace, Shaath said at a news conference after the meeting.'

The HRI said it has convincing evidence that the cluster bombing blamed on pro-Gaddafi forces was actually carried out by the US navy.

The report says at the time of the attack, Human Rights Watch and a reporter working for US media immediately blamed forces loyal to Libya's embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi for the cluster bombing that threatened civilian lives.

According to the report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were quick to condemn the act.

Clinton called the cluster bombing of urban areas an act that posed a lot of challenges to both NATO and the opposition.'

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Scores of prolife groups are calling for a public boycott of food giant, PepsiCo, due to its partnership with Senomyx, a biotech company that uses aborted fetal cells in the research and development of artificial flavor enhancers.

A Brampton man is suing the Canadian government alleging Canada’s spy agency launched a smear campaign against him, painting him as a terrorist and pedophile because he refused to be an informant.

The recently filed $10-million lawsuit comes after child pornography charges against Ayad Mejid, 48, were dropped when a Superior Court judge ruled his Charter rights were violated by agents with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

In October, Justice Jane Kelly ruled Mejid was threatened and intimidated into handing over his laptop to CSIS to prove he wasn’t the online jihadist they suspected. Instead, the agency says it found images of child pornography — evidence deemed inadmissible because it was obtained under the guise of national security, which constituted a “flagrant abuse” of his Charter rights.'

There are a whole host of events that can bring the world as we know it today to its knees.

From a hyperinflationary economic collapse to an electromagnetic pulse originating from the sun or a nuclear weapon, there exists a real and present danger that our system may, in the near future experience unrecoverable shocks to the power grid and clean water infrastructure, a halt to just-in-time agricultural transportation systems and a collapse of the currency exchange mechanisms that make the economy function.

US Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), lived through the great depression, so he’s seen how bad things can get. In a new documentary, Mr. Bartlett and others discuss the dangers posed to those living in cities and ways that your family can survive if the worst were to ever happen.'

Libyan officials have directed phone calls to a number of NATO member nations urging a ceasefire in a ongoing NATO war. The call was immediately spurned by the US, who said the offer was “not credible” and vowed the war would continue.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the US was absolutely opposed to the ceasefire because the Gadhafi-led government is “not complying with UN demands.” It is so far unclear if other NATO member nations may be more open to the idea.'

Hundreds of reports of suicides, psychotic reactions and other serious problems tied to the popular stop-smoking drug Chantix were left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer Inc., the drug’s manufacturer, submitted years of data through “improper channels.”

Some 150 suicides — more than doubling those previously known — were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices.'

Ninety-three people in Sweden, most of them children, have been diagnosed with narcolepsy since taking the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix last winter, according to figures from the Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket).

In 88 of the 93 cases, the agency has identified a direct correlation between the vaccine and the onset of narcolepsy, a sleep disorder causing extreme drowsiness and daytime sleep attacks.'

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on governments on Friday to discourage pro-Palestinian activists from sending a new aid flotilla to Gaza a year after Israeli commandos killed nine people aboard a previous convoy.

The United Nations meanwhile said it was giving a panel set up to investigate last year's incident more time to finish its work. It suggested that the group, which diplomats and UN officials say has been held up by disputes between its Turkish and Israeli members, might not reach consensus.'

As DEA raids and IRS harassment continue on state-approved medical marijuana, Big Pharma eyes the profitability of cannabis and prepares to muscle in, using its lobbyists and government connections to ensure a monopoly on legal sales of the drug.

In early April of 2011, two drug manufacturing giants, G.W. Pharmaceuticals and Novartis, announced they had formed an alliance to license and market GW's Sativex, a liquid cannabis drug. The drug is already available in Great Britain, as well as Canada and Spain. The licensing agreement with Novartis will enable sales to expand into markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. FDA Phase III trials are still being organized for Otsuka, GW's partner for licensing Sativex for the US market.'

A group of brave Swedes recently decided to hold a sit-in at a BASF warehouse in the northern part of the Scandinavian country to protest the planting of illegal, genetically-modified (GM) potato crops. Greenpeace reported that the individuals had been blocking the entrance to the warehouse in order to stop the biotechnology giant from planting its GM potato, Amflora, which was scandalously approved in the EU without any legitimate, independent safety studies -- however, more recent reports indicate that local police eventually intervened and arrested each individual involved.'

As the purported assassination of Osama bin Laden has placed the focus on Pakistan, it is vital to assess the changing role of Pakistan in broad geostrategic terms, and in particular, of the changing American strategy toward Pakistan. The recently reported assassination was a propaganda ploy aimed at targeting Pakistan. To understand this, it is necessary to examine how America has, in recent years, altered its strategy in Pakistan in the direction of destabilization. In short, Pakistan is an American target. The reason: Pakistan’s growing military and strategic ties to China, America’s primary global strategic rival. In the ‘Great Game’ for global hegemony, any country that impedes America’s world primacy – even one as historically significant to America as Pakistan – may be sacrificed upon the altar of war.'

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The illusion of freedom [in America] will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
Frank Zappa, musician and cultural iconoclast

"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government."